Middle East

UNITED NATIONS, Dec 9, 2011 (IPS) – The world's nuclear powers – both declared and undeclared – have come primarily from Asia: China, India, Pakistan and possibly North Korea. The Middle East was dominated by a single nuclear power – Israel, which has refused to publicly declare its status.  But that domination has been threatened by Iran, which the Western …

I felt quite uneasy when our man in Tehran, Dominick Chilcott, said the attack on the British Embassy was state-supported.  What doesn't he understand about people power? Surely he should have learned a lesson from the Arab Spring that when angry people rebel it's impossible to stop them.  To say the Iranian police stood by and did nothing when our …

CLOUDS of smoke billowed above the city of Isfahan – evidence that the latest strike against Iran's alleged nuclear weapons program had hit its target.  The second blast in as many weeks at an atomic or missile facility has sparked Iranian denials and claims of accidents, but a new phase in efforts to destroy its nuclear ambitions is said to …

Bashar al-Assad, Syria's beleaguered president, has openly defied the Western world, succeeded in splitting the United Nations Security Council and fractured the League of Arab States – even as it imposed unprecedented economic sanctions against his embattled country. With Russia and China, two permanent members of the Security Council, exercising their vetoes to protect him against U.N. intervention, and Lebanon …

Sanctions include asset freeze on Assad Thousands of supporters of Lebanon's anti-Syrian opposition rally in the northern city of Tripoli on November 27, 2011 to denounce the Syrian regime and its Shiite ally Hezbollah. The rally in the northern port city was organised by the Future Movement, the main opposition party headed by ex-premier Saad Hariri, to mark the 68th anniversary …